Page 20 of Silent Nights and Vampire Lights

She slapped me on the chest. “Never remind a woman of your other conquests while in bed with her.”

I grabbed her hand and held it over my heart so she could feel it beating. “I was no monk, but there weren’t that many, Holly. And I never felt about any of them what I feel for you.”

She met my gaze, and I saw hope in her eyes. “Really?”

I leaned forward and kissed her. “Really.”

I might condemn her if my family ever found out that I loved a human, that my mate was a human, but right now, I didn’t care. I’d find a way for us to be together or let her go before my family could find out about her. But I didn’t have to think about that tonight.

“I think I love you,” she breathed against my lips, and the words hit me like sunlight, warming me to my core. “I know what you are, what this means, and I love you anyway. All of you—the darkness and the light.”

I pulled back slightly to look into her eyes, seeing nothing but sincerity there. This remarkable human had somehow wormed her way past all my defenses, all my carefully constructed walls, and made herself at home in whatever was left of my soul. She didn't just accept what I was—she embraced it, embraced me, with a completeness that left me humbled.

“I love you too,” I whispered, the words feeling foreign yet right on my tongue. “More than I thought possible. More than I deserve. You've brought me back to life in ways I never thought possible.”

She reached up to touch my face, her thumb tracing my bottom lip. “Let me decide what you deserve,” she said softly and pulled me down to her again. And in that moment, surrounded by her warmth, her scent, her love, I felt more human than I had in two centuries.

Holly

Icouldn’t believe I told Nick I loved him. I always told men that too quickly, and they hastily found ways to run as fast as their legs could carry them, usually with some money or valuables of mine in their pockets. But Nick, surprisingly, seemed to return the affection, saying the words and appearing to even mean them. Did I dare believe him?

Then he kissed me again, one of those long, slow, drugging kisses that made me sink into him and just feel. He rolled me onto my back and settled on me, his chest cool to mine, his lips never breaking from my lips. He slid his hand down my side and brushed against the top of my jeans.

“What do you say we get these off of you?” he murmured against my mouth.

I nodded, horribly embarrassed that I couldn’t even undress myself in a sexy way. I mean, he just tore off his clothes like someMagic Mike dancer, and I got tangled like a toddler who had never seen clothes before. How sexy was that?

He pulled my jeans off in one easy motion. Seriously. So simple when I couldn’t even get them over my ass. Did he rip them? If he did, I would kill him. That was my only pair of jeans.

He placed a kiss on the soft skin of my stomach, and I froze, all thoughts of ripped jeans gone from my brain. He laughed against my skin and trailed kisses along the skin, lower, until he reached the top of my granny panties. Yeah, it had been laundry day when I found the mafia guys in my apartment. All I had clean were my granny panties. How embarrassing.

Nick didn’t seem to care that I wore white cotton undies that covered literally everything from the tops of my thighs to my pouch of my stomach. He just ran a finger along the elastic and moved it down, following with light, butterfly kisses that made my stomach quiver.

I watched him with wide eyes as he inched my underwear down, then I felt a sharp pinch at my hip and heard a tearing. “Ooops. I hope you weren’t attached to that particular pair of undergarments. I seem to have damaged them.”

I scowled at him. “I’m not exactly loaded with extra clothes.”

“They were hideous. I’ll buy you a hundred more. Or, better yet, wear none.”

I rolled my eyes, though I have to admit I hated them, too. “Like we have time for shopping.”

“If you can force me to shop for music boxes and snow globes, then we can certainly find time for lingerie.”

He spread my legs and settled his broad shoulders between them so I couldn’t close them. He then gave me a wicked smile and licked me from my opening to my clit. I gasped and buried my fingers in his hair, the sensation zinging through me like lightning waking up all my nerve endings. He sucked my clit intohis mouth and inserted a finger inside, curving it to hit a spot deep inside that made my muscles quiver.

I let my head drop back and simply surrendered to the sensations rolling over me, threatening to overwhelm me with pleasure, and I was more than happy to drown in them. He licked and sucked me like I was his favorite treat, and I could only gasp and moan, clenching his hair, twisting in his hold, but he wouldn’t let go far.

My orgasm caught me by surprise, the wave crashing over me and taking me under quickly. When I surfaced, Nick was over me, his hard cock fitted to my entrance.

“Are you ready for me, Holly?”

I cupped his cheek and lifted my hips, wordlessly encouraging him. He slid in, just a bit, and I moaned at the tight fit. He went deeper, slowly, carefully, until he was fully seated, the fit almost uncomfortable, bordering on the edge of pain. I shifted, and he groaned, dropping his head to my forehead.

“Stop moving, Holly. Please. Or this will be over before it’s begun.”

A laugh burst out of me, and he groaned again. “Sure, you got yours. It’s all good for you.”

I squeezed around him and moved experimentally. “I’d really like another, if you think you could get on with it.”

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